Nepal: we’re not leaving

BMS World Mission is committed to Nepal, and our workers in the country are committed to their Nepali neighbours. Your gifts are enabling us to make plans to help with the long-term recovery of communities shattered by the earthquakes.

“Are you leaving now?”
 
This is the question BMS mission workers Angus and Helen Douglas have been asked more than any other since Nepal’s earthquakes. They’ve been asked by neighbours, friends and strangers – and by supporters back in the UK.

After the quakes, as Nepal suffered terrifying aftershocks, the presence of BMS workers standing alongside their Nepali friends when they could have gone home spoke volumes. And BMS is not going anywhere.

Helen says: “Angus sat with a Nepali colleague who was weeping, saying how much it meant to him and the community that we had stayed in Nepal. Walking through the pain and hardship together meant so much to him.”
 
It is their love for God and for his people that is motivating the Douglases, and all of the BMS team, to stay in Nepal. Jesus walked on earth, alongside those who were suffering, and that’s what our workers are trying to do too. In important ways – both big and small.
 
As well as standing in solidarity with those affected in the country, BMS workers are helping to head up the relief effort of two of our long-standing partners, the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) and the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). And our recovery plans stretch much further than the essential relief your gifts enabled us to provide in the aftermath of the two devastating earthquakes – where we were able to help assist over 10,000 households through the provision of emergency shelter, food, water and medical check-ups.

Working with our trusted partners INF, UMN and the development arm of the Nepal Baptist Church Council, your gifts are enabling us to help with the long-term recovery of three badly affected districts in Nepal – Dhading, Gorkha and Lalitpur. We have people on the ground who are co-ordinating the relief effort, we are planning a long-term response which will involve providing shelter, livelihoods and heath care – including psychosocial support – and we are building on existing projects, utilising knowledge and relationships that mean we can help those who really need it in the ways they need it most.
 
In addition, we are planning for the future, helping to build the capacity and resilience of our partners in Nepal, so that they will be able to respond even more quickly if another disaster hits the country.
 
When the camera crews move on and Nepal is no longer headline news, there will still be hundreds of thousands of Nepalis who need help. Because of you and your gifts to our Nepal earthquake appeal, we are able to carry on standing with them. Thank you.


Following the earthquakes, spinal rehabilitation in Nepal is more desperately needed than ever. You can help support this work by ordering a copy of My Father’s House and sharing it in your church and with your friends.

 

This article first appeared on the website of BMS World Mission and is used with permission